Investigations on power quality issues in industrial distribution systems using the Power System Blockset simulation software

This paper illustrates the use of the Power System Blockset (PSB), dedicated to the simulation of power systems with power electronic converters and drives. This Blockset based approach is valuable to identify power quality (PQ) issues and develop effective remedies for them. After a brief presentation of the new simulator, the focus of the paper is on the application of the new software tool to power quality improvement. The first case presented deals with the design of an active power filter (APF) for harmonic compensation in a three-phase system. The second study presents the PQ issues caused by the most common nonlinear loads in a single- phase industrial network and the solution using an active filter. Simulation and experimental results are included to demonstrate the usefulness of the Blockset approach